The 1957 Eurovision Song Contest was held in Frankfurt, (West) Germany. It followed the very first contest which was held in and won by Switzerland. With the Swiss declining to host again, the Germans stepped up to put on the show.
After the first contest they made a few tweaks:
allowing duos to also enter
not allowing jurors to vote for their own country
A few firsts occurred too:
Germany’s Margot Hielscher brought her telephone on stage (Telefon, Telefon), making it the first ever “Eurovision prop”
The Danish duo had a good pash on stage (gosh, it was long)
The voting was televised
Ten countries took part, with Austria, Denmark, and the United Kingdom competing for the first time and joining the original seven participating countries from the first contest in 1956 (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Switzerland).
The stage featured a harp with a background that was changed out for each artist. The artist and conductor would race down a set of stairs to their harp and orchestra respectively while the presenter, Anaid Iplicjian (a German actress), announced them. Quite entertaining. But then we had the songs ;)
The winner was The Netherlands’ Corry Brokken with her song “Net all then”. She received a massive 31 points. Broken had also performed for Switzerland in the previous year’s contest and she also went on to host the Eurovision Song Contest in 1976 which was held in The Hague.
France finished 2nd with 17 points. And the pash helped Denmark to come in 3rd place. Unfortunately, not enough people picked up their own telephone for Germany and poor Margot ended up in 4th place.
Interestingly the Swiss winner from last year, Lys Assia, returned and finished a creditable 8th with her song “L’enfant sue j’étais”.
For better or for worse, 1957 is the first Eurovision Song Contest where footage of the complete show is available. Waiting for the telephone to connect during the voting sequence is excruciating and hilarious at the same time. Definitely worth a look.